Personally I'd prefer Sheffield, but Fev or Fax would be fine.

Example (using alphabetical order):

MW
Bra vs Cas
Cat vs Hud
HFC vs HKR
Lee vs Sal
StH vs Wak
War vs Wid
Wig BYE

OTR
Cas vs Cat
Hud vs HFC
HKR vs Lee
Sal vs StH
Wak vs War
Wid vs Wig

OTR
Wig vs Bra

All teams will have played 2 games each then. All other than Wigan will have had 1 OTR and 1 MW.

How they'd arrange bye teams' games I don't know. Mid week games are possible. Some teams only have 5 day turnarounds sometimes on Sun-Fri games. With Thursday/Monday games some even less.

Another example:
Friday - Bra vs Cas, Cat BYE
Wednesday - Cas vs Cat, Bra BYE
Monday - Cat vs Bra, Cas BYE

Could do Thursday, Tuesday, Sunday if necessary.

Damn Wellsy got to it before me.

here was my example,

13 teams so you have 24 fixtures home and away, each weekend one team gets a rest weekend

In addition

[uMagic Weekend[/u

Hull FC v Wakefield
Wigan v Castleford
Hull Kr v Leeds
Bradford v Widnes
Saints v Huddersfield
Warrington v Salford
Catalan sit out.


[uCatch up weekend for Catalan[/u

Catalan v Wigan

Now Wigan have had 1 more game than everyone else as they played both Magic and Catalan.

So you have another weekend were everyone plays but Wigan

It finishes the season with each team playing 26 fixtures.

It’s not that hard really to have a 13 team league, to keep the magic weekend, and make sure everyone plays the
same number of games.

The playoffs ensure it does not matter that you play 2 teams 3 times as where you finish does not decide the winners.

The magic weekend already means it’s not just home and away for every team.
I picked Catalan to sit out the MM weekend as they would not bring many fans anyway.

It only requires a little thought to work this out.

So not

just

Teams are always wanting more money, so they could use any formula you liked, the bonus weekend could be derbies.

It could be another on the road set of fixtures to spread the game.

You could have a weekend of fixtures in and around grounds in London, if that was your thing. Making sure we all hit the capital. It could a RIP London weekend.

But seriously, you could use it for any purpose you liked or just an extra home fixture for a team and share the takings, or not what ever people prefer.

Yes there will be one more fixture than this year, but with players getting bye rounds they should be well rested.

You don't actually have to have 12 games home and away. That format can also be changed up. But it would take too long to explain that. The season can be as long or as short as you like as teams do not have to play home and away an even number or times.

We have done it before in previous seasons when we had smaller leagues, some teams got more home fixtures than others.

Sod the Magic Weekend, no-one knows what its purpose is.
If it's already booked in for next year and money has been spent or will be lost, OK fudge it in some non-credible way, makes no difference, it has no credibility anyway.
Then ditch it.

They cant risk wigan not being at Magic they take mroe fans that 3 clubs conbined (sure it is signed for at least 2 more seaons) -Magic Weekend is heading back to the magnificent Etihad Stadium for 2014 and 2015. Wildcats training wear including polo shirts, vests- was on a wakefield website could be wrong though.

13 teams is workable and maybe a better option with 1 relegation spot, whereas if a CH clubs comes up most likely some of the crackpots at the RFL will give them a years dispensation otherwise they will be on a hiding to nothing i think.

Many of today's Super League fans are unquestioningly loyal towards the product in all it's tragic and meaningless forms and that includes the Magic Weekend. Nobody will ever know what it's purpose is because the reality is... it doesn't have one.

Surely you know that is was brought in to spread the "gospel" away from the heartlands.
Edinburgh, Cardiff and Manchester ???

The purpose of the Magic Weekend is to give those who don't go a reason (whatever they choose) to moan. They will pick it's primary purpose at the whim of their negative opinion (earlier its primary purpose was to "spread the game"icon_wink.gif and then b*tch and moan about it and suggest scrapping it.

I've been to every Magic Weekend (apart from this year's which I'd just got back from Cyprus for so couldn't afford it, and man was I devastated!). They've often been a highlight of my season. Great fans. Great days. Great stadiums. Great evenings out. How any real RL fan can't sit down and enjoy 7 games of elite RL is beyond me.

And for those questioning the "primary purpose" of the Magic Weekend, it was to allow the fixtures to drop from 28 to 27 fixtures whilst still obtaining the same income. The rest was a bonus.

If you don't like Magic Weekend, don't go. But don't tell others they shouldn't just because you don't like it!

If you hadn't noticed, I'd just done it in alphabetical order.

Personally it'd be a shame to exclude anyone from the Magic Weekend. It's a great weekend and great that all fans mix. Including Catalans. They usually come in good numbers (for them) and are very vociferous. There were loads in Cardiff and Edinburgh!

Would be good to mix it with the WCC, but doubt they'd get the Aussies over mid season. In fact, isn't it "supposed to be" over there next season?

Wow, are you embarrassed of that rant ? If not you need medical help.

If you new anything of the five towns area you would know that a Cas fan would rather chew his arm off than follow fev or wakey , and the same applies for wakey and fev fans.

In the words of the legend Arthur Lowe " you stupid boy "

What about new fans that haven't picked a club yet?

I wouldn't presume to tell anyone not to go.
In this thread, people are discussing the structure of the league and others are responding with "but what about the Magic Weekend?".
The Magic Weekend was a means to an end (as you have mentioned) ... so trying to structure a league and a season around such an event, especially one which has failed to fulfil any of its supposed purposes, is like wanting the tail to wag the dog.


If you like Magic Weekend, you go. But don't tell others they are not a real RL fan because they don't.

That doesn't add up though.

There is only one team which misses out at the Magic Weekend, so who do they play their 'catch-up' game against? Whoever it is, that other team will then have them played one more game than everyone else.

A 13 team league is no real problem, it just means one team gets a bye each week, but MM won't work as a 'league' round.

It's been explained in full twice on page 15.

But the abridged version is

Millenium Magic 12 teams play

Extra week for 1 MM team and the team that sat it out.

Then a further week for the 12 teams that are one game behind.

Job done everyone plays home and away plus 2 extra games.

There are other ways to do it, but mathematically this is the simplest way for most people to see it.

So...

It's really really simple then...

1) [uManchester Magic Weekend[/u - for those teams who aren't missing out, not on the road yet but might miss out if you are Wigan or Catalan.

2) [uJack Kerouac Magic Weekend[/u - where most teams are erm... on the road... but not all teams.

3) [uCatch Up Magic Weekend[/u - for those not involved in Manchester or Jack Kerouac Magic.

4) [uRIP London Magic Weekend/M25 MAGIC Weekend[/u - for those teams who might have been on the road but weren't magically in Manchester and who miss London and the M25.

5) [uMagic Bye Weekend[/u - where every team gets a week off and two free points each, unless they missed out on Manchester Magic or weren't magically on the road and still require a magical catch-up fix.

RL of the Magically Extraordinary!!


**Please note that Sky reserve the right to change times and dates of magic weekends with little to no notice whatsoever therefore Manchester/Jack Kerouac/Catch-Up/RIP London/M25/Bye-Bye Magic weekends may not actually be played on a weekend but on Thursday and Monday evenings subject to the prioritisation of Soccer and Premier League Darts scheduling.

Mr Churchill suggested this 1 st post on page 11 , and you are all correct, with the play offs you dont neccessarily require everybody to play each other equally, similarily to the NRL

However they didnt/dont have relegation, and that makes a difference , especially to a club that loses its place

Fun appears to be a concept unfamiliar to Mr Eve.

2014 bottom two teams dont make it into the 2015 12 team SL. If Fev were brought in for the 2014 season ligically it would simply mean they end up being relegated as any team coming up is likley to need 1 season to find their feet.

Since when has ' what is likely to happen ' been relevant to sport?

But teams already have this issue. The magic weekend already makes it a league without an even number of home and away games. 13 teams just adds one extra game on top to make sure everyone has the same number of games.

People love to make it sound more complex than needed. I'm not sure if this is on purpose or due to very poor mathematics.

So 13 home and 13 away isnt even?, its your maths thats poor

With 13 teams everything above 24 games starts to skew the fixtures, we currently only have 1 with no relegation, to have an even number of matches would probably mean 28 matches which would be 4 ' skewed ' games, more than enough to upset a club that was relegated, 26 would just about be acceptable

I missed this, we currently don't have an even number of matches.
People where saying the MM weekend could not work with 13 teams.
I gave the example that it could. With 2 more weekends.

I did not say that 13 home and away games is not even, I said that using the current format of everyone playing home and away, plus the magic weekend on top. It requires everyone to play one more game on top of that to make sure all teams play an equal number of times.

In a league of 13, you can't have 13 home and 13 away games. You can't play yourself.

You can have 12 home, 12 away, MM weekend, one weekend with 2 teams only and a further weekend. Everyone plays 26 games.

Currently the fixtures are skewed, with 14 teams the fixtures would still be skewed as we would still have MM, with 13 the fixtures would be skewed, but with 2 extra games not 1.
The point was a league of 13 does not effect MM any more than a league of 14.

In the end it does not matter at the top end of the table, does it matter if we have 25 or 26 matches at the bottom end? 14 teams would have 25 fixtures each, 13 teams would require 26 fixtures each. It's splitting hairs to say 1 extra match if fine currently, but 2 extra skews the fixtures too much. If anything 2 extra fixtures is more even, if you match the teams well enough.

If they do have to go with 13 then why not drop Magic for one season. Then in 2015 have two ie SL1 and SL2. Simples

How can SL drop the magical crown jewels of the regular season?

Even for one season?